Metamorphosis -- The Drastically Remodeled 358 Fifth Avenue

 

image by Tdorante10

On March 6, 1901, The New York Times reported, "Hundreds of workmen are daily demolishing into a reminiscence what was once the grandest residence in New York, and collectors of curios from the old house have been busy for the past week."  The newspaper was referring to the former Alexander Turney Steward mansion, on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.

The magnificent, white marble residence had been purchased by the Knickerbocker Trust Company, which commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to design an uptown branch office on the site.  Their plans called for a "four-story marble and terra cotta and stone office building" to cost $450,000--or a staggering $16.6 million in 2024.

Anticipating that the Midtown location would eventually become its headquarters as Manhattan's business district moved northward, the Knickerbocker Trust Company directed the architects to allow for enlargement.  The Real Estate Record & Guide noted that the new building was "built with the idea of adding to its height, and so the foundations were made sufficiently strong for the erection of additional stories."

McKim, Mead & White produced a white marble structure that foreshadowed the firm's Roman-inspired Pennsylvania Station complex two blocks to the west.  A full-width set of marble stairs spilled from monumental, three-story Corinthian columns.  Elaborate carvings filled the frieze below the cornice, which was capped with a formal balustrade.

photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the New York Public Library

The Knickerbocker Trust Company had correctly projected that commerce would engulf the former mansion district.  But that change brought problems for the building.  McKim, Mead & White had followed the tradition of old brownstones, whose stoops extended beyond the property line, by designing the sweeping stairs (and even a portion of the columns) 15 feet onto city property.  On November 17, 1906, the Record & Guide reported on the city's intentions to widen Fifth Avenue and its resultant demand that all "encroachments"--stoops, bay windows, and other elements--be removed.

When Wurts Bros. took this photo in 1905, the fate of the broad marble steps was sealed.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The article said that the city's case "is perfectly clear," but conceded, "The only really difficult cases are those in which the ornamental parts of really beautiful buildings, such as that of the Knickerbocker Trust Co., project slightly beyond the line."  Despite the firm's desperate attempts, the broad stairs were doomed.  Six years later, on December 21, 1912, the Record & Guide recalled "the unsuccessful legal efforts of the Knickerbocker Trust Company to save its wide-spreading marble steps."  As it turned out, the loss of the steps was merely the first of dramatic changes to the 1902 building to come.

Seen here in 1915, the Knickerbocker Trust Company was now accessed by a diminutive set of steps.  To the south is the Waldorf-Astoria, on the site of the Astor mansions. photograph by Perry Walton from the collection of the New York Public Library 

In 1907, the Knickerbocker became part of a shady deal organized by F. Augustus Heinze and Charles W. Morse to corner the market of the United Copper Company.  The scheme disastrously failed on October 15 when the share price of United Copper crashed.  Morse and Heinze were ruined and depositors began a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company. 

Six days after the collapse, president Charles T. Barney was asked by the board to resign.  The next day the Knickerbocker was forced to suspend operations.  Unlike his co-conspirators, Barney was not ruined financially.  His personal fortune was estimated at the time to be $2.5 million--or about $80.3 million in 2024.  But he was disgraced and humiliated and on the morning of November 14, he shot himself in his mansion at 103 East 38th Street.

The Knickerbocker Trust was taken over by the Columbia Trust Company.  On December 27, 1919, the Record & Guide reported that the bank had sold its building to Max N. Natanson, noting, "The buyer will increase the height of the present structure by nine stories."  

Natanson quickly rethought the project.  A month later, on January 31, 1920, the Record & Guide reported he had sold the Columbia Trust Co. Building to the Columbia Graphophone Co. for $3 million (about $51 million today) "as a permanent home."  The article said the firm had chosen it "on account of its splendid location and accessibility at all points."

The firm brought back McKim, Mead & White to design the additional floors.  The project was estimated to cost $1 million.

McKim, Mead & White's original renderings mostly preserved the original structure.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

On July 4, 1920, The New York Times reported that work had begun on the building.  "When completed the structure, which has for many years been one of the imposing architectural landmarks of middle Fifth Avenue, will be radically changed from its original appearance," said the article.  "Ten stories are being added, making the new building fourteen stories in height."

The project ended the former compromise with the city.  The "four magnificent columns," as described by The Times,  would be replaced "by square columns with their Corinthian tops."  The newspaper explained, "The present columns project slightly beyond the building line, and that is the real reason for their final removal."

One of the original McKim, Mead & White capitals.  photo by McKim, Mead & White,  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

The New York Times said that "the magnificent frieze, five feet high," would be salvaged and moved to the top of the building, below the cornice.  McKim, Mead & White placed a brick-faced, Renaissance Revival structure on top of its Roman original.  The Columbia Trust Company remained in the banking floor as a tenant.

Among the initial tenants of the new upper floors were the Fifth Avenue Association; Gilman Importers (which had branches in Paris and Miami); Benjamin & Johnes, makers of the Bien Jolie Corsette; and several legal firms.

Benjamin & Johnes remained in the building at least through 1925.

The 1930s and 1940s saw tenants like the men's hat dealers, The Frank H. Lee Co., here for a least a decade; and Vogue Foundations, creator of women's items like the "Kno-Belt."  The firm advertised it in 1939 as being "for the women who frankly need figure control."

The Frank H. Lee Co. was in the building from around 1936 to 1946.

A long-term tenant was architect Archibald F. Gilbert, who leased an office as early as 1926.  Born in 1875, he had worked in the office of D. H. Burnham & Company until opening his own office in 1916.  Among his works were the 1927 Manufacturers Trust Company Building on Broadway; the 20-story Goldman Sachs headquarters at 30 Pine Street, designed in 1929; and the 1939 Delaware Academy in Delhi, New York.

When Gilbert's son, Daniel C. C. Gilbert, joined his father's practice, the firm became A. F. Gilbert & Son.  Archibald F. Gilbert died in his Riverside Drive home on July 7, 1953.  Daniel C. C. Gilbert carried on the business under the name of A. F. Gilbert & Son.  The offices were still at 358 Fifth Avenue in the late 1960s.

Square columns replaced the fluted originals.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The banking space was home to a Greenpoint Bank branch in 2000, when it was the victim of a serial bank robber.   Three blocks away, at the textile firm Park B. Smith, Inc., Smithson Smith worked as the company's computer operations supervisor.  On December 28, 2000, The New York Times said that recently, Smith's co-workers "made jokes at his expense, citing his uncanny resemblance to a widely publicized wanted poster that showed a bank robber calmly strolling out of a nearby Midtown branch."  The article said they laughed, saying he should probably eat lunch at his desk so he would not be mistakenly arrested.

"They probably won't be laughing today," it continued.

Smith had been arrested and charged with 18 bank robberies, three of them at the Greenpoint Bank branch at 358 Fifth Avenue.

image via loopnet.com

The building was remodeled again in 2021.  The banking operations were removed to the basement and the first and second floors converted to retail space.  All traces of McKim, Mead & White's remarkable 1902 white marble structure have been obliterated, resulting in an unremarkable office building.

many thanks to reader Martin Hill Ortiz for suggesting this post

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